1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a package for transporting and displaying bunches of fresh-cut flowers.
The technical field of the invention is that of making containers, packages, or parcels for living organisms or materials sensitive to changes in atmospheric conditions or surroundings, such as cut flowers, foliage, etc.
The main application of the invention is transporting and displaying cut flowers for sale, in particular bunches of fresh roses, while paying due regard to the biological plant element, so as to ensure that customers receive flowers in the best possible state of conservation.
2. Description of Related Art
After being harvested and separated from the remainder of the plant, it is known that in order to finish growing and bloom, cut flowers can rely only on any water that might be given to them and on their own nutritional reserves. Unfortunately, various causes accelerate wilting, and in particular:
Vascular blockage due to callouses forming in the up vessels, usually near the bottom of the cut stem: these callouses are often of fungal or bacterial origin; sometimes the callouses obstructing the conductive vessels are the result of phenolics present in the cells of the stem being oxidized by enzymes released by the plant to heal the injury constituted by being cut. Water can also be prevented from rising up the stem by air penetrating into the stems due to it being left dry for a long time, e.g. during transport.
In any event, the consequence of such vascular obstruction is a lack of water, with the water that is absorbed no longer compensating losses due to transpiration, so the weight of the fresh flower decreases and the flower wilts; with roses, the top end of the stem, i.e. the flowering peduncle, becomes curved into a so-called xe2x80x9cbent-neckxe2x80x9d shape, particularly if the roses were picked at an early stage of development.
Degradation of protein reserves: because they are consumed by oxidation in cells and because they migrate to other portions of the flower stem, soluble sugars disappear quickly thus stopping the synthesis of proteins; with most flowers, the resulting degradation in protein reserves, or xe2x80x9cproteolysisxe2x80x9d, accelerates from the beginning of blooming: the degraded proteins release amino acids, and then ammonia which is toxic for cells.
Ethylene which is one of the senescence hormones of plants: it is produced naturally by certain species during blooming of their buds and it can also come from the outside (other plants, bulbs, fruit, tomatoes, internal combustion engines, factories, etc.); ethylene accelerates cell-degradation phenomena in sensitive species, even at low concentrations such as 0.5 parts per million (ppm); it causes flowers to wither, with flowers, buds, and leaves dropping off, it causes discoloration, . . . . It is produced auto-catalytically.
Absici acid (ABA) or stress hormone (which might be the cause of ethylene production), triggered by water stress, causes stomatal closure to reduce evapo-transpiration, but also correspondingly reduces the lifetime of the flower.
Thus, depending on how plants are transported, stored, and conserved, between being picked and being sold to a consumer, and even depending on how the consumer transports them to the place where they are to be put on display, one or more of the causes of wilting outlined above are accelerated. Further information on this topic can be found in the horticultural journal PHM No. 385 of October 1997 in an article entitled xe2x80x9cLa conservation des fleursxe2x80x9d [Conserving flowers].
Thus, for example, in present distribution systems and circuits, flowers are generally transported while dry or slightly moistened in waterproof bags or in cotton wool soaked in a conserving agent, however that does not prevent air from penetrating into the stems; in addition, some of the businesses delivering flowers in France or even in Europe do not make use of refrigerated transport means, and flowers are stored in packaging boxes made merely of cardboard, with the flowers being secured rather crudely by hooks passing through the cardboard and by rubber bands; some businesses do indeed include a bag of conserving powder with such shipments, but flowers that have traveled while dry have already suffered vascular blockage.
Supermarkets limit such blockage by transporting flowers in refrigerated trucks and by storing them in buckets filled with water, however they are protected solely by optionally perforated transparent films: thus flowers, which are often pressed together and handled, suffer damage before a customer can select them and put them in a shopping trolley or cart; flowers are then stuck upright in a corner of the cart where they run the risk of falling over and being damaged by other packages transported in the same cart, and in any event they are transported dry; they are left dry until their leaves are stripped off and they are put in a vase full of water at the purchaser""s home. In addition to the vascular blockage that then takes place, it should be observed that flowers are generally put on sale close to fruit and vegetables, i.e. specifically when ethylene concentration is at its greatest; since the leaves are not pre-stripped from bunches, that can also encourage the development of bacteria in the water medium.
Thus, although the sellers of bunches of cut flowers often emphasize freshness and quality in order to improve sales, it should be observed that nothing particularly professional is done with regard to plant physiology and thus to conserving bunches and satisfying clients.
Numerous patent applications have been made for improving such transport and storage, and in particular international patent application No. WO 95/09083 describing a xe2x80x9cgas-permeable corrugated card packaging systemxe2x80x9d suitable for extending the time during which fruit, fresh vegetables, and cut flowers can be conserved in a modified and refrigerated atmosphere, thus genuinely providing an improvement over packaging in transparent paper as is done in supermarkets, but not dealing as a whole with the problem posed.
The objects of the present invention are to be able to provide packaging for transporting and displaying bunches of fresh-cut flowers, and combining at least the following conditions:
having due regard for the biological plant element whose wilting is accelerated for the reasons outlined above, by providing protection against physicochemical attack such as heat, cold, damp, drying out, etc.;
having due regard for the biological plant element by providing protection against mechanical attack due to impacts, falling, compression, vibration, etc. throughout the circuit: from the flower producer or grower to the premises of the end consumer;
being practical and useful for the professional:
by facilitating transport, handling, storage, and packaging prior to assembly, in particular by providing a package that can be folded flat so as to save as much space as possible, i.e. a package which can be flat in shape when it is folded; and
by providing a package that is easily assembled to receive cut flowers and in which it is easy to package and protect flowers, and also a package which makes it easier to combine a plurality of packages side by side, in particular on a display unit once the package is in the assembled position, in particular containing packaged flowers so as to provide optimum space saving in this condition also;
being practical and useful for the consumer by facilitating transport, handling, and use without special preparation, once the package has been assembled and used for receiving flowers, while also ensuring the best possible conservation of the plant, from the business that made up of the bunch to the end user""s home;
providing a package which enables the consumer to transform said package into a vase without damaging the flowers;
being attractive in appearance and drawing the attention of clients who need to be motivated to purchase bunches packaged in this way, whether for their own use or as gifts, while also enabling the package to be personalized so as to carry any message desired by the vendor; and
being as low in cost as possible so as to avoid increasing the cost of the bunch.
For this purpose, the present invention provides a package for bunches of fresh-cut flowers, which package has a quasi-rigid shell surrounding at least the flowering ends of said flowers.
The package of the invention comprises a leakproof and rigid vase suitable for containing a liquid or gel for keeping the cut ends of the stems of said flowers hydrated, and said shell comprises at least, firstly a funnel-shaped portion whose lower portion co-operates with the upper portion of the vase via preferably-reversible connection means and whose upper portion surrounds the flowering ends of said flowers, and secondly a cover for protecting said flowering ends, which cover closes the large base of the upper portion of the funnel-shaped shell, and said shell includes in its said upper portion at least one lateral opening/closing means.
Said connection means enable said shell to be connected to and removed from said vase. These means are preferably reversible, i.e. they enable the shell to be reconnected to the vase after it has been disconnected.
The lateral opening means enable the bunch of flowers to be removed while avoiding any rubbing against the shell which is one of the major sources of damage to flowers, giving rise to an ethylene crisis that leads to early senescence of the plant.
The liquid can be absorbed by a solid substrate contained in the vase, such as a block of foam; the bottom ends of the flower stems can be stuck into the substrate, in particular while the bunch is being transported in the package.
In an advantageous embodiment, the lower portion of the funnel-shaped shell overlies and matches the shape of an upper portion of the vase, which upper portion has the same funnel shape as said lower portion of the shell. In particular, the small base of the funnel-shaped lower portion of the shell is smaller than the opening of the top portion of the vase. This juxtaposition of the lower portion of the shell and the top portion of the vase provides a stable connection between said shell and said vase.
Advantageously, said shell is constituted by a precut and non-stuck sheet having non-parallel longitudinal first fold lines suitable for obtaining a funnel shape of polygonal section after folding and, where appropriate, enabling said lateral opening means of said shell to be used.
In a particular embodiment, said lateral opening/closing means of said shell are constituted by hook and notch shaped cutouts on the side edges in the upper portion of the shell located above the vase. These lateral opening/closing means enable said shell sheet to be looped, in particular after folding and wrapping around flowers placed in said vase, and they also enable said shell to be opened. At the consumer""s home, the shell is released via said hooks or notches, thereby releasing the vase and enabling it to be filled with water.
Advantageously, in its upper portion said vase has hooking means or openings suitable for co-operating respectively with openings or hooking means in said lower portion of said shell so as to constitute the connection means between said shell and said vase.
In a variant embodiment, said connection means between the shell and the vase are constituted by openings in the lower portion of the shell along said non-parallel first fold lines of the shell, and projecting elements at the corners of the upper portion of the vase in the form of a polygonal funnel, said projecting elements penetrating into said openings of the shell after the-shell has been folded around the vase and said lateral closing means of said shell have been operated.
In an embodiment of this variant, said projecting elements are constituted by the corners of a top parallelepipedal portion of said vase situated above said funnel-shaped upper portion of said vase and constituting the opening of said vase.
In another variant embodiment, said shell has an upper portion constituting an upper funnel and a lower portion constituting a lower funnel, the sides of the upper funnel sloping relative to the central axis of the funnel at an angle that is smaller than the angle at which the sides of the lower funnel slope relative to the same central axis of the funnels, said lower funnel of the shell overlying a said funnel-shaped upper portion of the vase.
In the two above embodiments, good complementarity and good co-operation are obtained between the shell and the vase to provide better cohesion to the assembly after it has been joined together, enabling it to withstand manipulation during transport better.
According to another characteristic of the invention, said cover is constituted by cutting out one or more zones at the top end of the sheet constituting said shell and enabling the top opening of the upper funnel of said shell to be closed after folding.
According to another characteristic, said sheet constituting said shell has one or more zones at its top end suitable for constituting a handle after folding.
According to another particular characteristic, said vase is constituted by a sheet having parallel longitudinal first fold lines enabling the following to be formed by folding from top to bottom:
a top opening of the vase;
an upper first funnel-shaped portion of polygonal section with the sides of the polygon narrowing downwards, the small base of said upper funnel being preferably at a height lying between one-half and four-fifths of the height of the vase;
a lower second funnel-shaped portion of polygonal section with the sides of the polygon of said polygonal section widening downwards;
a bottom constituting a flat bottom for the vase; and
said bottom and said top opening of the vase thus having the same polygonal shape, the polygon in particular having three to six sides and most preferably being a regular polygon.
In a variant embodiment, said vase has a top first parallelepipedal portion defined by fold lines perpendicular to said parallel fold lines of said vase, situated above said upper funnel-shaped portion and constituting the top opening of the vase.
In an embodiment, said vase has a second parallelepipedal portion corresponding to the lower portion of said vase and defined by fold lines perpendicular to said fold lines, situated beneath said lower second funnel-shaped portion, and including the bottom of said vase.
Advantageously, the precut sheet constituting said vase has cutouts and openings forming four flaps in its lower portion that are suitable for forming said flat bottom of the vase after folding and/or sticking.
The package of the present invention is made up of two portions respectively constituting a shell and a vase, said shell and vase being suitable for being folded into flat shapes prior to use.
In particular embodiments, said cover has a transport handle and its outside shape is a polygon, in particular it is square or hexagonal in shape.
In order to facilitate storage and transport of said bunches of flowers, the package of the invention is preferably of a regular symmetrical shape about a vertical axis, and can be installed on a support having a stand with sockets of an inside shape that co-operates with the outside shape of the lower portion of a vase, and with the axes of said shells, corresponding to the axes of the packages, being disposed relative to one another and in particular in groups of at least three by three, at distances equal to the diameter of the inscribed circle that is tangential to the outside shape of the covers of said packages: thus, particularly if the covers of the packages are polygons having three, four, or six sides, they bear against one another and interfit against one another like a mosaic; this ensures that they are properly secured not only via their bottoms because the vases are held in the sockets of the stand, but also via the large bases of their funnel-shaped upper portions which are held against one another.
The present invention thus also provides a display and packaging unit for the packages of the invention comprising a stand having sockets of inside shape suitable for co-operating with the outside shape at the bottoms of said vases, and with said sockets being disposed relative to one another in such a manner that the sides of the covers of the various adjacent packages whose vases are inserted in said sockets come to bear against one another.
In addition, the flared shape of the shell leaves room for cold air to circulate during transport and storage in refrigerated cells: the ideal temperature for conserving flowers (except for tropical flowers such as orchids) lies in the range 2xc2x0 C. to 5xc2x0 C., thereby slowing down the metabolic process of aging and limiting evaporation of water via the stomata; this also serves to avoid temperature differences which can give rise to condensation on the flowers, thereby encouraging the development of Botrytis. The package of the invention when used as from the pre-refrigeration cell, thus makes it possible to avoid breaking the cold chain, and the vase integrated in the package makes it possible to keep the cut ends of the stems in a liquid or a gel, thus avoiding dry transport.
The vase can be made of card, preferably card that presents qualities of mechanical resistance to moisture and provided with a leakproof inner lining, in particular one made of polyethylene, that is preferably suitable for retaining the water that is poured into said vase.
The vase of the invention makes it possible to add an antiseptic into the aqueous medium together with an acid agent and also to avoid water stress by encouraging the flow of raw sap in the xylem and elaborated sap (the product of photosynthesis) in the phloem. In addition, once the funnel-shaped portion and the cover have been removed, such a vase can allow a user to put the flowers on display immediately without any need to find some other vase, and without causing the plant to suffer.
The shape of the shell makes it possible to protect buds, petals, leaves, and stems not only from handling but also from any mechanical impact during transport and in the shop; this shape matches the volume occupied by leaves and buds from the bottoms of leafy stems to their flowering ends; it can be transparent and ribbed or perforated or corrugated, allowing air to flow downwards so as to avoid the development of Botrytis. Since the flowers are transported in a pre-refrigerated state and in the dark, their metabolisms run slowly, on their own reserves, and the package of the invention prevents them from being disturbed or degraded by the environment.
In terms of gas, the package must be porous, at least via the cover, and as a priority from the inside towards the outside so as to protect the flowers from external gases, such as cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes, nearby fruits and vegetables, while nevertheless allowing the plants to breathe. For example, with a non-climateric flower such as a rose, i.e. a flower that does not produce its own ethylene, certain cultivars are nevertheless sensitive to external ethylene. The cover is rigid and can be transparent like the shell, so that the customer can see what is being bought.
The cover also makes it possible:
to close the package to protect the most delicate portion of the flower, i.e. its bud;
to carry the bunch in its package by means of an integral handle;
to hold packages against one another via their tops during transport because of their touching polygonal shape; and
to allow the plants to breathe while protecting them from harmful external gases.
The result is a novel type of package for bunches of fresh-cut flowers such as roses, that has regard for the biological plant element: the present invention improves quality by providing a solution to the need to preserve the plant and by contributing to the overall quality actions undertaken by horticultural professionals, from the grower to the distributor; the present invention is thus not only a package.
Other advantages of the present invention can also be mentioned, however those mentioned above suffice to show and demonstrate the novelty and the advantage of the invention.